Tag Archives: Story Inc

How Gallipoli brought a British soldier to New Zealand

Wairarapa Times Age reporter Steve Rendle interviewed Hugo Manson, one of our participants in The End of the War? and found out how his British father’s experience at Gallipoli influenced him into emigrating to New Zealand.

This is an excellent article about how Cecil saw the war — with great insight into his personal experiences and the way they shaped his life, and the lives of his family members.

Gallipoli holds a special place in the history of New Zealand. Masterton’s Hugo Manson heard first-hand from his father what it was like to be there.

“In effect, Gallipoli was his first job . . . and within an hour of his first job, the soldier next to him was shot dead.”

Masterton’s Hugo Manson is talking about his father – or, more accurately, his father’s experience of the World War I campaign regarded as a key part of nation-building for New Zealand.

But Cecil Manson wasn’t fighting with the Anzac troops – his British 2nd 4th Queens Surrey Regiment was operating over the hill from the New Zealanders and Australians on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

“But he met a lot of New Zealanders, and he was terribly impressed,” Hugo Manson recalls. “He thought they had an extremely free way of treating things and treating people.

The article also discusses Cecil’s contribution to the second world war, which Hugo, at the time, had understood was ‘administrative’. It wasn’t until years later, that Hugo discovered his father had been involved Bletchley Park, a British code-breaking center during the Second World War. Click here to see The Wairarapa Times Age article about Cecil’s Manson’s service and the effect it had on his family.

Enjoy our You Tube teaser of Hugo’s story.

An audio-visual exhibition, The End of The War? looks at the war-time experiences of nine people – men and women, Māori and Pākehā, Pasifika and Asian – and explores how the impact of their experiences has stretched through the generations, connecting these long-dead New Zealanders to their families 100 years on.

The End of the War? is created by Story Inc. and Dusk, and funded by the Lottery Grants Board. To see The End of the War? and book a guided tour of The Great War Exhibition or a Quinn’s Post Trench Experience, please click here.

Today at the opening of our new Exhibition, Passchendaele – New Zealand’s Darkest Day, Radio New Zealand reporter Te Aniwa Hurihanganui talked to Exhibition Manager Ian Wards about the Battle of Passchendaele.

“The reality was Passchendaele was awful,” Wards says, “and we would really like people to understand that, but also one of the main reasons why [The Great War Exhibition is] here is so we don’t do this kind of stuff again.”

The Battle of Passchendaele of 1917, included the darkest day in New Zealand’s military history. 843 soldiers were killed on 12 October 1917, the most on any single day of combat involving New Zealand troops.

Sneak a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making of our latest temporary exhibition, Dissent – the story of how the war affected conscientious objectors, politicians, Māori and religious groups who dared to speak out. See how Story Inc & Dusk used a green screen, silhouettes, and Brechtian influences to bring the voices of conscientious objectors, Māori pacifists, and anti-war activists to life, creating a powerful, emotionally confronting audio-visual experience.

A ten-minute audio-visual show produced by Story Inc. and funded by the Lottery Grants Board, Dissent gives The Great War Exhibition a chance to tell the stories of a different type of courage. The courage to oppose the war.

Dissent is the latest in Chapters of the Great War, a series of temporary exhibitions featuring lesser-known stories of the First World War, and runs until late September. Our next temporary exhibition, Passchendaele, opens on 4th October 2017.

The Great War Exhibition

Dominion Museum Building
Pukeahu National War Memorial Park
Wellington, New Zealand